Racing Back to Vietnam by John Pendergrass

Author:John Pendergrass
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
Published: 2017-08-25T06:11:59+00:00

FOURTEEN

I CORPS MEDICAL

SOCIETY

1971–1972

When the U.S. military divided the country of South Vietnam into four regions—or corps, as they were called—someone made the decision to use Roman numerals to designate each zone. As a result, there was I Corps in the north, II Corps next, then III Corps, and finally IV Corps in the Mekong Delta area of the south. (These last three corps were known as “Two,” “Three,” and “Four” corps, but I Corps was always pronounced “eye” corps.)

Da Nang was in I Corps—the region closest to the DMZ.

Approximately every three months, as many physicians as possible would gather at China Beach for the I Corps Medical Society meeting. Even though the U.S. ground troops were being gradually withdrawn from Vietnam, I Corps still had a heavy medical presence. These were men from the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines, plus a few civilians. Our society included specialists from the field hospitals, battalion surgeons, general medical officers, and flight surgeons; any physician was welcome to attend. Few of the physicians were career types; most were like me, serving their two to four years of active duty, waiting to go back to the U.S. for further training or private practice.

Each time we all met, it was like a homecoming. You saw people you knew from medical school, internship, flight surgeon school, or from a previous military assignment. The medical world is different from the military world. These folks spoke your language; the conversation revolved around medical issues, rather than military ones. No one stood on formality, there was no saluting—it was like being back in the real world.

For much of the war, China Beach (along with Vung Tau in the South) was an in-country rest and recuperation (R & R) center. After serving ninety days in-country, military personnel were eligible for three days of in-country R & R. For the troops in the bush, China Beach was like heaven, a welcome respite from the unpleasantness of war. After spending weeks in the field, the soldier got a clean bed, decent food, swimming, surfing, and plenty of time to drink beer. The beachfront was nearly a mile long, and the center was able to host over two hundred people at a time, usually enlisted men.

When I arrived at Da Nang in April 1971, the withdrawal of American ground troops was well underway, and by the fall of that same year, most of the combat infantrymen and Marines were gone. As a result, China Beach had faded a bit; it had a bare-bones glamour, just an old beach house with a decent restaurant remained. The beaches and the waters of the South China Sea were a marked improvement over the dirt, heat, and noise of Da Nang, but China Beach was nothing like it appeared in the television series from the late 1980s. The place had seen better days.

At our society meetings everyone would first gather for a nice meal, often prawns. The very large prawns of Vietnam had a thick, fibrous texture with little flavor, but compared to the usual mess hall cuisine, they were a delicious treat.

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